


How Sapphique Stole The Crystal

by Ori_Cat



Series: Sapphique Tales [1]
Category: Incarceron Series - Catherine Fisher
Genre: Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Gen, Oaths & Vows, Talking Animals, Trickster Tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:09:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ori_Cat/pseuds/Ori_Cat
Summary: In all the depictions, Sapphique is shown holding the crystal key. But how did he get it in the first place, and from where?





	How Sapphique Stole The Crystal

**Author's Note:**

> 1) This is the first trickster tale I've ever tried to write, so constructive criticism is welcome!  
> 2) Yes, I realize the style sounds like Tolkien. I noticed that about halfway through and elected not to change it.

Once, a long long time ago and a far far distance from here, there lived a Winglord, great in might and in cruelty. Slave-taker, land-ruler, warlord, his name and those of his servants were known over many Wings and many peoples. 

Now this lord was also exceeding rich, as you may have been able to surmise, and rumour of his wealth, gathered from his servants and his defeated enemies, was passed far and wide. It was said that he had whole rooms filled with treasure, that even those who served him lived as kings. And it was said that there was still one thing in that great hoard that he valued over all his other wealth, and made boast that nothing in the entire world was like to this treasure. 

Naturally, there was much speculation as to what the Lord’s treasure could be. Some said that it was a great jewel, of adamant or sapphire or tourmaline depending upon the teller, and that its worth would buy whole cities should the Winglord ever trade it. Some said it was a power source, an engine of some kind that never ran dry. And there were even whispers that the Lord had discovered a crack in the Prison’s mighty walls, through which a man might slip out and view Outside, and that the Lord wished to have control over both worlds. 

Eventually - but perhaps it is no surprise, considering his fame - news regarding this Lord reached Sapphique in his wanderings. And Sapphique asked the trader who had told him where he might find this Lord. And the trader said that on the other side of the plain on which they were standing, there ran a wide rive, and the Winglord lived on the other side thereof. “But I know no more than that,” said he. 

So Sapphique set out on the road that crossed the plain, and he walked for three days, and on the fourth he heard the sound of flowing water, and he knew that he was drawing close to the river. Yet when he came nearer, he saw that, although the track ran straight down to the water’s edge, there was no bridge nor any means of crossing. He was then dismayed, for he could not attempt to swim the fast-running water, and he thought that his quest would be ended as soon as it had begun, and he sat himself down on the bank to think on this unhappy fate. 

As he sat there, however, a serpent crawled up out of the water towards him. Its body was as thick as a man’s arm, and its scales glittered black in the light, and Sapphique drew back for fear of its bite. But the serpent opened its mouth and said, “Why do you wait here on the riverbank?” 

Sapphique answered it, “I seek a mighty Lord, and I have heard tell that he lives on the other side of this river, and yet I have no way to cross, for there is no bridge, and if I tried to swim I would drown in the deep water.” 

And the serpent said to Sapphique, “I have heard of this Lord. But if you have been told he lives across the river, then you were told wrongly. For if you follow this bank downstream, you will come to a maze of caves in the rock, and it is thence his servants come when he sends them abroad. Yet I know no more than that.” 

Sapphique rose and thanked the serpent, and set off along the bank. And he found the cavern mouth that the serpent had spoken of, and he entered in. There was no light in the caves, and he had not thought to bring one with him - yet there were still the Eyes, as there are Eyes everywhere, and so he did not stumble or fall, because he followed the paths of the Eyes, one waxing over his head just as the last fell into darkness behind him. 

And when he had passed though, he came to a series of grey tunnels, perfectly square, and there were lights set in the grid of the ceilings. And Sapphique, though he was now growing weary having journeyed four days and more without rest, entered the series of tunnels, and they wound to and fro. One corner he turned, and then another, and saw no more signs of life than had been in the darkness of the caverns. But at the last he came upon two men, though he first saw them from many meters away, and he perceived that they wore rings and wore a sigil each upon his breast. This sigil was in the shape of a wolf’s head and jaws, and the trader had told him that this was the sign of the Winglord he sought. And Sapphique called out to the men. 

They heard, and they turned to approach him, and they drew their weapons, for he had indeed entered unbidden the territories to which the Lord lay claim, and this the Lord had forbidden, even under penalty of death. But Sapphique bowed before them, as it were in supplication to one greater, and he said, “I beg of you, please do not harm me. For tales of you and your Lord are passed far and wide, and I have heard them, and I have come to offer myself to his service.” 

So the men bound his arms behind him and brought him into a great hall, from which many passages branched off, where the Winglord had his throne. Now the Lord was dressed in fine clothes and his arms weighed down with rings, and guards stood about him. But the men brought Sapphique through the guards and drove him to his knees before the Lord, who asked, “What is this that you have brought to me?” 

And the men told him that they had found him within the bounds of their territory, and that he had told them he wished to offer himself to his service. 

The Winglord looked down upon Sapphique, and he asked, “What is your name?” 

“I am called Sapphique, oh lord.” 

“And do you, in truth, wish to join yourself in service to me and to mine?” 

And Sapphique answered that he did. 

“Yet many have said such words before,” said the Lord. “And no small number of them bore no truth within them, only seeking to join themselves to my service with the later goal that they would betray me, and take what I have earned, and raise up their own lord in my stead. And I brook not any such designs.” 

“Yet they are all no more, my lord,” responded a young woman, who stood at the Winglord’s left hand. “You have defeated them all, and cast them into death.” But none acknowledged her words. 

“I give my word, lord,” said Sapphique, “that I will serve you faithfully. But if that is not enough, I will swear an oath to you, even upon my own life, if you require.” 

And the Winglord laughed. “I do not ask your life,” he said. “That would be a punishment too small were you to betray me. You shall swear your loyalty upon your good right hand, and upon the heads of your father and your mother. And all three I will take from you should you fail to keep your oath. Then all that see you shall know you as an oathbreaker, and you will live, knowing all your life the fortune you would have, and the family that would live, had you but kept your oath.” 

“Oh lord,” said Sapphique, and bowed low as well as he could, being bound, “though I must confess that I do not know my mother, gladly I will swear to you, upon my good right hand and upon the head of my father, that I shall not betray you nor ever turn against you.” 

“I hear your oath,” said the Winglord, and Sapphique rose and entered his service. 

Here must be told of Sapphique’s motives in these deeds. For Sapphique’s great quest, until he in the end achieved it, was ever to Escape, to break the Prison’s might and see the stars of which he has told us. And to achieve this was his ultimate aim, in everything he did. 

This goal was ever in Sapphique’s mind as he worked to serve the Lord, for he believed that the great treasure the Lord was rumoured to possess might, in some way, be his key to Outside and his way of Escape. But after weeks he had still heard nothing of what this treasure might be, and had indeed seen very little of the Winglord. 

So Sapphique turned his attention to the other of the Winglord’s servants with whom he was now joined, and to one of them in particular. For there was a man who was known to guard the Lord’s treasury, and this was a job of fair prestige among the servants. And Sapphique came to him, when time was given to them to eat and rest, and he asked the man about the treasuries, and how one might become a guard thereof, for - he lied - he had been a rich merchant’s gate-guard in the land from which he came. And the man told him that the Winglord selected them himself, and yet that any who showed a desire for this job would never be given it, for the Lord would never trust them. He said that he had been given the appointment only after another treasury-guard had been slain after a grudge. 

“What was your oath?” Sapphique asked. 

And the man answered that he had sworn upon the heads of his son and daughter, who lived a far distance away in a Wing above. 

“Then hear what I offer you.” And Sapphique told the man of his quest, all and everything, and he said: “I shall find Freedom. I shall discover the crack in the Prison’s walls, and open the gate to Outside. And when I do I shall remember you, and you and your family I will lead Outside, and you and they shall be Free. 

“Is this enough?” 

The man thought for a long time, and Sapphique feared he would refuse, and report him to the Winglord. But eventually he answered, “It is, though I shall hold you to that promise. What would you have me do?” 

“Lead me to the treasury, and allow me to enter in. I ask of you no more than that,” said he. 

So later, when it was Lightsoff and the Lord and most of his servants were asleep, Sapphique arose and the guard allowed him into the corridors near to the treasury, and they came to a door. And the guard grasped the handle and opened it, and Sapphique stepped within into the blackness. And he drew out the torch he had brought, and lit it, and the light fell on stacks of metals, weaponry and armour and trinkets, gold and steel and bronze, on circuitry wound in bundles, the ruins of machines. There were chests of stained wood wrapped in brass, and coinage in many metals, and woven fabrics in bright colours, and the skins of animals, everything that could be sold or purchased, and all these were piled up and stacked with haphazard paths between them. And though he saw it would take months to look through it all, Sapphique went forwards along the paths, his torch always revealing more. Rats scuttled from beneath his feet, because there are Rats everywhere, just as there are Eyes. 

He raised helmets and lifted cloth and opened chests, but as time wore on he still found nothing that he thought may be this Lord’s treasure, the way to Outside. And he knew that should Lightson come and he still be found there there would be no mercy for him. 

But at the last he opened one chest, that was not distinct from any other, and within it he found a wrapped cloth, and within that something hard. And when he brought it out he saw that it was a great jewel cut into a prism, and though it had no colour itself his torchlight struck it and broke into all shades and colours. And Sapphique knew that this was what he sought, a key to open any lock and pass any door. 

And he left the treasury, and extinguished his torch. But he knew that to be found to possess anything of the Lord’s would be his death, and so before Lightson could come he took another corridor nearly to the border of the realm the Lord guarded, and he hid the Crystal there, and returned feigning innocence. 

But he was watched as he went, by the woman who had stood at the Lord’s left hand, and though she did not recognize what, exactly, he had done, she reported him to the Lord, who ordered that the treasury be opened again so that he might know what it was that this traitor had taken from him, and when he found that it was the Crystal - for the Lord knew that the Crystal was sacred even if he did not know its use - he was greatly angered. 

And the Winglord sent his warriors, and Sapphique was once again brought to stand before the Lord’s throne in the hall with many passages. And the Lord said, “You disappoint me, traitor, trickster, thief. Liar and oathbreaker. And remember this: this punishment you set and have brought upon yourself.” 

“But I have broken no oath,” Sapphique said. And he held up his right hand, and they saw the maiming, and that his first oath was thereby void. But the Winglord would not be tricked so easily, and he said, “Yet two oaths you made me, not one. And although the first was void, I will still hold you to the second. For I also heard you swear on the head of your father.” 

And one of the Winglord’s servants, highest in the Lord’s esteem, stepped forwards and set her sword against Sapphique’s chest. “And now you shall lead us to your father, so that we may slay him before you, and all may know the price of your disloyalty.” 

But Sapphique only laughed. “Gladly would I see you slay my father, if I ever thought you could do it. For I am Sapphique, son of Incarceron, which had greater might even than you.” 

Yet the Winglord’s servants surrounded him, and hemmed him in, so that he would have been slain oath or no, were it not that at that very time the walls began to shudder, and the floor to shake like water in which a pebble had been dropped. Some have said that this quake, at this time, is proof that the Prison, in its infinite cruelty, did indeed love Sapphique who called himself its son. But others say that this was only the Prison’s mockery of the Winglord, as it pleases itself with seeing the proud brought down and the esteemed humbled, and that though it this time chose Sapphique as its instrument that means nothing. 

In either case, the Prisonquake cast the Lord, his guards and warriors, and Sapphique all to the ground. But Sapphique arose more quickly than they, for he wore no armour and no jewelry, and fled from the hall to the place where he had hidden the crystal, and though they sought him they could not find him. And he laughed to himself, out of pride for his trickery and glee that this time, finally, he might have discovered the way by which he could finally view the Outside and make his way beyond the walls that surround the world. 

But you know the tale does not end like that, for he lost it again, and was forced to spend endless journeys more seeking for another way Out. But that is, as they say, a story for another time.


End file.
